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Summary: Survivalist Writing Gets a New Name
Review: John Saul's novel The Manhattan Hunt Club is an intriguing piece that places it's mark among Survivalist Writings. In it Jeff Converse, a college student, is convicted of a murder he did not commit. However, things take a turn for the worse (yes, it can get worse) when he is kidnapped during a routine prison transfer, and placed in the subway system of underground Manhattan. During which, he is a pawn in a game of survival, when "hunters" are stalking him like game. Jeff Converse, with the help of a sexually frustrated serial killer named "Jagger", must fight for survival, and freedom. This has been my first read of John Saul, and even though I thought his writing was not extraordinary, found myself intrigued by his work. I think the works of David Morrell or "The Most Dangerous Game" do a better job of what I call "Survivalist Fiction", I do think this piece ranks up there with very good survivalist writing.
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Summary: A near-perfect thriller, inspired by a documentary film...
Review: I recently listened to "the MHC" in audiobook format, while making a 12 hour drive across the Northeast United States. I've never read Saul before, I just picked up the audiobook at the library because it looked interesting. I was hooked after 20 minutes, and didn't stop listening for the entire drive. The story is a non-supernatural thriller, written in the somewhat gory style of Stephen King. The characters are intriguing and there are plenty of plot twists and exciting action sequences, as well as some gruesome violence... I enjoyed the way the main characters are never physically described. There is a strong female character who is almost certainly black, but Saul never actually describes her. And the young female love interest is never descibed either. Is she a blonde, brunette, is she hot? Is she fat? It's totally up to the reader. Refreshing. The setting of the story is the abandoned tunnels beneath Manhattan, where several thousand homeless people really do live in real life. The book borders on becoming preachy about the homeless, but it wasn't too annoying. For anyone who is intersted, there was a documentary film on the subject of the homeless in subterranean NYC that was an obvious inspiration for this book. Just search "Dark Days" in Amazon. It was a weird film, you may like it.
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Summary: Man(hattan) Hunt Club
Review: Reading this book will take every reader back to their early school days of "The Most Dangerous Game" wherein the likeable, resourceful innocent is coldly and dispassionately pursued through the dark by the almost overwhelming evil. This was my first dive into John Saul's dark and twisted imagination and I can't say I was disappointed. In its pages, you will find again absolute power corrupting absolutely, the strength and power of love and a wonderful receipe for "track rabbit". Although the obvious plot and characters were somewhat predictable, I must confess that it was an overall good read. Perhaps that came from being a New York City homeboy who has spent way too many hours commuting below ground and wondering what really lies in those black tunnels. Perhaps I have always been curious about where the houseless spend most of their time. Maybe, I just like the thrill of the hunt. Maybe, you will too.
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Summary: A very different type of thriller from John Saul
Review: The Manhattan Hunt Club is a much different read than all of the other John Saul books I have read. There's no family curse or haunted youths to be found here; rather, this is a book of gritty, gripping realism. I admit it took me a while to get completely wrapped up in the story, but the final hundred pages had me captivated. The book starts with young college student Jeff Converse trying to help a lady being attacked in the subway; his good Samaritanism earns him a conviction of attempted murder as the victim fingers him as her assailant. Then a freak accident as he is being transferred to another prison finds him taken down into the unseen depths below the New York subway system, thrown together with a bona fide murderer, and forced to play a game he can barely comprehend: you win, you go free; you lose, you die. So begins a terrifying ordeal pitting Jeff and his new-found friend against a team of vigilantes straight out of The Most Dangerous Game. Meanwhile, Jeff's father and his "uptown girl" girlfriend refuse to believe the evidence given to them that Jeff in fact died in the traffic accident. They eventually go into the tunnels themselves in search of Jeff, and the convergence of all the characters takes place in an exciting climax of action. There are some surprises in these pages, and a feeling of justice that sometimes does not find its way into Saul's fiction. The makeup of the Manhattan Hunt Club and the ideas behind its formation are disturbing yet frighteningly plausible. Saul does an admirably fine job of humanizing the homeless in all of their guises; the characters we meet underneath the subway tunnels are not all bad or shiftless, yet even some of the best of them, through their mute cooperation with "the game," cause one to face some troubling propositions and wonder if, in their shoes, he might do the same thing. The most enlightening character here is Jinx, a young girl who found a home beneath the city after running away from her mother's abusive boyfriend; despite the bad luck life has sent her way, she retains her dignity and bravely seeks to do the right thing when she does not have to get involved at all. One is struck by the fact that much of this story could in fact be true to life. There are people living the kind of life described herein, but John Saul would seem to have done such unfortunate folks a great service. He brings out the humanity of these people, making the point that they are not all druggies and addicts but are all too often very human characters forced to live as best they can. Perhaps the motivation fueling some of the true villains here, the members of "the club," is not strongly enough developed, and the character of Jeff's deeply religious mother is somehow forgotten along the way, but The Manhattan Hunt Club is an increasingly compelling read that will take you into the filthy subterranean tunnels alongside its characters and very likely change you in some way by the time you finally manage to find the light at the end of the tunnel.
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Summary: MANHUNT UNDER NYC
Review: Wow! If you have claustraphobiadon't read this book without having access to the outside for a breaher. Picture yourself in a series of dark tunnels running under the streets of NYC. Some of the tunnels are for trains, subways, utility cables and some nolonger used except by the "houseless" who live there.Jeff Converse is led down there bya man who rescued him from a burning police van. He doesn'tknow where he is or how to escape.Most people think he was killed in the explosion. But his girlfriendand his father believe he is still alive. Suddenly he finds himselfthe target of the Hunt Club. So as not to give away the secrets of this great thriller, I am just going to say by all means read it! John Saul is a great mystery-thriller writer and this is one of his best. I was glad to finish itjust to get out of the tunnels!It is a 5 star plus adventure.
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Summary: Stereotypes galore
Review: As someone who is interested in the underground and people who supposedly live beneath the surface, I was eager to pick up this book, but I had to stop reading after a dozen pages. Not only is the writing style distractingly dumbed down, but the homeless are demonized in a way that reminded me of stereotypical racist literature. Like they are from another planet. Unfortunately something that seemed to be about an interesting subject deteriorated within the first few pages.
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Summary: Fun But Predictable
Review: This book is vintage Saul; take too many under-developed characters, place them in a suspenseful plot full of twist and turns which eventually result in a big, suspenseful, over-the-top finale. The Manhattan Hunt Club is a very good summer read; it's the kind of book that reads itself quickly and which you can't help but find entertaining. The plot is simple in itself; a society of rich, high-class socialites have developed the ulitmate game. They send prisoners down the subway tunnel systems where they hunt them to death. Our main hero, Jeff, becomes a huntee but, of course, he isn't guilty of the crimes he is accused of. He needs to run away from the hunters and survive their attacks. Mix to this about half a dozen more characters, including a female politician, Jeff's father and mother, Jeff's girlfriend and Jinx, a young girl who lives in the tunnels and you get a book that is very full. Maybe even a little too full. Sure, the tale moves along quickly and it is very suspenseful, but stopping at just a little over 300 pages, the book never gives you the satisfaction of truly knowing any of the characters. Saul spends too much time on suspense and not enough time developing the characters. Hence, you end up not really caring for any of them. Still, the book offers some great moment and the 75-pages finale is pretty great. This is a good summer read. It's classic Saul, but it's not Saul at his best.
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Summary: An enjoyable read.
Review: What I liked most about this book was its creation and description of a world beneath the streets of New York City. Central to the plot is a community of New York City homeless folks, who, despite being long discarded by society, have a compelling existence, an intricate network of relationships, and a hierarchy. Quite interesting and affecting. A good read, especially if you're a fan of Saul.
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Summary: Suspenseful But Not A Bookshelf Keeper. 3 Stars ***.
Review: This remided me of Harlen Coben's Gone For Good: you'll want to get to the end no matter what, but afterwards you don't find it worthy to occupy a place on your bookshelf-not the kind of read that you could pick up a few months after reading it and find favorite chapters to want to read again. Nothing surprising here, but a hell of a lot better than Stephen King's last one, From A Buick 8 < stay clear from this one! Worth the price to read once and that's it. 3 STAR RATING.
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Summary: The Hunt Is On
Review: This is the first novel by John Saul that I have read. It was a thrilling page turner and a fast read. Characters are thinly drawn and some plot twists don't make sense ( but these are common flaws of this genre). I would never have read this if it had not been recommended by a friend. It was a nice piece of mind candy.
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